I'll answer that one with a question. Do you believe that my assertion that single motherhood leads to dependency and the overwhelming of the welfare system? I ask because others here celebrate single motherhood and Barton and I think that's a bad Idea. Your stats, whatever they are, and my stats that some here wish to dismiss could all be misrepresentitive of something, but what we can get form this discussion is that Atheist philosophies as demonstrated here are what Barton and I would call anti family. The anti family element tends to dependence, and a welfare state that is bankrupting the country. Barton and I are pointing to truth. I like that and as you said: But "like" and "trust" are not pathways to truth. However, they ARE often pathways to ERROR. It just may be that my liking Barton is not, in this specific case difinitively a pathway to error. I'm sure you could agree with that.

I cannot tell you how disturbed I am by your repeated demonization of single mothers. And how baffled I am by the fact that you associate single motherhood with atheism. Let’s go over a few facts, shall we?

1. It is tough to be a single mother. No one should be forced to be a single mother. A woman should only enter single motherhood if she genuinely wants to be a single mom. That is why sex education, birth control, and access to abortion are so important. Sadly, young women in highly religious neighborhoods and communities are less likely to have access to the appropriate information and resources to prevent an unwanted pregnancy.

3. The disproportionate percentage of single mothers living in poverty is due to a wide range of factors. That is because most of the routes to single motherhood are paths which put women (and their children) at an economic disadvantage. When a woman becomes a single mother due to unplanned pregnancy, or due to divorce, she is at an automatic disadvantage. In the case of young, unwed mothers, I consider the disruption of education to be the most harmful factor impacting both on instances of unwanted pregnancies, and in terms of long-term economic disadvantages. (Looking back at item #1, we see that lack of sex education, and sometimes lack of self-worth, are contributing factors to pregnancy in girls and young women.) Single girls and young women who become pregnant without wanting or planning a pregnancy, often drop out of school, and subsequently have less earning power over the lives of their children. This is compounded by the continued economic and social disparities in which women still earn less than men for equivalent positions. Poverty sucks. Education is the best way to alleviate poverty in first world nations.

4. An increasing percentage of single mothers are older, highly educated women, who consciously pursued single motherhood. We defy your clichés about welfare or even atheism, because many among our ranks are highly religious.

5. Single mothers are bankrupting the country? Really? I thought that wars and corporate welfare and greedy banks and unwise trade practices were the primary factors contributing to the fiscal crisis in the US. .7% of your tax dollars go to fund “welfare” as in TANF, while 3.7% goes to support “food and nutrition assistance,” which includes food stamps, subsidized school lunches, nutritional assistance for expecting moms, and a variety of other services. http://www.whitehouse.gov/2011-taxreceipt To put this in perspective, 24.9% goes to support the military. The cost of military salaries and benefits (5. far exceeds the federal dollars spent for welfare AND all nutritional services combined.

6. The vast majority of single moms became single moms with the participation of a man, who either represented himself as someone who wanted to build a family with her, or he was just someone who was much more invested in the short-term interests of his dick, than that of the interests of the girl or woman, than the national debt, and certainly more invested in his dick than in the life of the child.